Lessons from Solitude.

I survived my 24 hours of solitude! And it was actually really great... I relaxed a lot, read a lot, spent a lot of time with the Lord, and just was overall recharged. I've written 3 different posts to tell you about my time... but none seem to appropriately say what I want to say. Here's my 4th attempt to try to concisely communicate what I took away from my 24 hours.

-I (and everybody else) live a hurried life and it is affecting me more than I realize. A book called "The Life You've Always Wanted" by John Ortberg said this, "The great danger is not that we will renounce our faith. It is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of it." That's my life right now in a nutshell.

-I also realized how much society and technology affects my life after being away from it for 24 hours. It's kind of ridiculous how often I have to check my phone, Twitter, Facebook, e-mail, etc. to make sure I'm still connected to the world... Needless to say, it was good to get away from all of that. Another quote from Ortberg, "Solitude is the one place where we can gain freedom from the forces of society that will otherwise relentlessly mold us." I'm still deciding how I need to change my life and my addiction to society and technology now that I'm back.

-The third main thing that I realized about my life that wasn't given to me by a book or scripture was this: I am so concerned about my future and how everything in my life will turn out that I'm totally neglecting taking care of myself and my relationships (with the Lord and with the people around me) here in the present. Things have to change.

So there you have it. The things you learn while away for a day. I didn't have a camera to take pictures of the beautiful amenities where I spent me my retreat, so instead I took a Photo Booth pic of myself, currently on the patio at Starbucks, willingly choosing to be by myself after a day of solitude. Craziness, eh?